Phares: Iran's Missiles Will Soon Reach to United States

Global terrorism and Middle Eastern expert Walid Phares tells Newsmax that within the next five years, the radical regime in Iran will have a missile capable of reaching North America.

Phares, who has conducted briefings at the U.S. State Department and the United Nations Security Council, also said Iran is definitely seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and will not hesitate to use them if they do.

Newsmax TV’s Ashley Martella asked if Iran’s nuclear program is intended for peaceful energy production as Iran claims.

“Absolutely not,” said Lebanese-born Phares, whose latest book is “The Confrontation: Winning the War Against Future Jihad" [Buy it here now.]

“I wrote a book on the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1987 in which I looked at a projection into the future, and we are now in the future. They always wanted to acquire nuclear power and they wanted to do so so that they can protect the expansion of their interests in the region.

“Acquiring nuclear power for them is first of all to protect the regime from the internal domestic democratic opposition.

“On the other hand, keep in the mind that they are involved in Iraq. They are involved in Lebanon with Hezbollah. They have a strategic alliance with Syria. They have interests in the Gulf with Shiite areas in eastern Arabia and elsewhere. They need the nuclear power to shield anybody who’d like to challenge their [interests].

“The nuclear program they have is going to end up becoming a military one.”

Martella asked if Iran is close to developing an ICBM with a nuclear warhead.

“What is interesting about the Iranian program is that they are developing on two tracks,” observed Phares, a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

“One track is the actual nuke technology. They are moving slowly on that one. And the other track is the missile technology. The missile technology they do have, and they have declared they have, includes missiles that can reach not only the eastern Mediterranean — that would cover all of Israel and also Lebanon and Jordan and most of the Arabian peninsula — but also Europe.

“No wonder we have a debate [about whether we] should have a missile shield system in Europe or not. Basically the Iranian regime will be able in the next five years, according to the projections, to reach as far as North America.”

Asked to comment on President Barack Obama’s efforts to reach out to Iran, Phares said:

“When the Obama administration devises a policy that says we need to reach out to the Iranian regime, without putting pressure on that regime by engaging with the actual Iranian opposition, the perception in Tehran is that the Obama administration will not use everything at its disposal to [apply] that pressure.

“Hence last week President Ahmadinejad declared that there is no more pressure to be made on Iran, and when that is the case obviously they are free to develop the weapons they want.”

If Iran does acquire nuclear weapons, will the regime actually use them, Martella asked.

“Regimes in the past that are totalitarian, including the neighbor of Iran, Saddam Hussein, have used missiles, have used weapons of mass destruction, have gassed their own population,” Phares declared. “The Iranian regime’s allies in Hezbollah have used missiles in their confrontation with Israel.

“The Iranian regime, which is ideological and radical, will use them when they think they can win the war.”

Martella also asked Phares if Obama’s bow to Saudi King Abdullah last week sends any kind of message.

“The image that we saw indicates that there was a political message of, quote unquote, submission,” Phares said.

“Maybe the president did not want it to be seen like that, but it has been seen by the international community and most importantly by the radicals in the region.

“If the U.S. president will be seen in a picture bowing that much to the head of the Wahabis in the region, then the perception is that America is weak…

“The U.S. president is the president of the most powerful democracy on the face of the earth. Not only should he not bow to any other president … but even in the Arab world we haven’t seen any other Arab king or president or Muslim sultan or head of state bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia or to any other king.”